Pocono News Section

Ashes Stolen During Funeral

Ashes Stolen During Funeral - Friday, August 29, 2008 at 11:33AM EST

Friday, Aug 29, 2008 @ 11:33am EST
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY --A funeral is usually a somber time. Family and friends often reflect on the life of someone that’s now gone. But a service yesterday in Wilkes-Barre ended up with someone swiping the cremated remains of the deceased and now, police are involved. They want to talk to the people who took off with the remains of a 25-year old man who died earlier this month. Our Joe Holden has the details.

He told me he doesn't know why they did it. Nancy Kemba said it happened pretty fast. “It is really weird and horrible. It's like a nightmare.” Two people stole her boyfriend's cremated remains right in the middle of the funeral at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church. Kempa recalls “I tried stopping her saying this is disrespectful, you can't do this here.

Eyewitnesses say mourners were paying their last respects to Aaron Lohnes who died two weeks ago. Kemba claims Alicia Morio grabbed the remains out of the church sanctuary. We're told she sat down in a pew, then got up, left and handed them off to Michael Hartman. Kempa says and he ran down the street, almost falling and dropping it.

WBRE-TV surveillance cameras caught the mid-afternoon sprint down Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre. Crystal Barborek of Duryea says “there was just so many people jumbled around. She's screaming down the street, yelling to her and it was just crazy.

Family of the deceased has a different story. They say Nancy Kempa had no right to the remains... Telling us she stole her deceased boyfriend's death certificate. But police say while his family's signatures appear on cremation documents, Kempa was the one who actually paid.

Investigators say those who swiped the ashes, weren't related to anyone whose names appear on funeral paperwork. Nancy Kempa “we had everything worked out. I paid for everything to be done for him to be cremated. And his brother said it was fine for me to have the box as long as I had a right place for it.